my mom could outwit Dr. Seuss anyday

We all know him, don't we? The master of rhymes, a man who probably started "the rap" idea of making up your own words. But it doesn't compare, none of it to what my mom did this past week....


STORY TIME!!!!

So the other day...being yesterday my mother and I were walking through Walmart as mothers and daughters often do and I was telling her the woes of my life....just one, actually...I just don't understand sometimes.

ANYWAYS

my mother being the genius that she is said "You should've said..."
and started making as many rhymes to the word "great" as possible.
date, meditate, late, etc. it was quite the moment.
Sadly, with my lack of English since I dunno... 20 months ago, I can't remember the full poem, but with a few brightly colored pictures I'm sure she could go far.

Oh hey there world

So I've been slacking of a bit in the world of blogging...sometimes I get to a point were I'm about to write something cool and inspiring and then..."nah...who would wanna read that anyway." or, "uh, better not today." Anyways, to anyone who has been wanting to know of my life this is the post for you!
(Hurrah! Yipee! Blogging!)

Family, isn't it about time?

I've been blessed to spend lots of time with the family. Park City Vacation, Fourth of July Celebration, reading scriptures to work on our Exhalation! (hehe I just really wanted the last one to rhyme with the first two.)
It really has been such a blessing. I certainly love my family.


Independence Day...

As said right in the paragraph above, I got to spend some time with the fav-fam. It was an excellent day, BBQ, cube (a Swedish yard game,) and watching fireworks from the back porch. Seriously a huge contrast from my 4th of July last year in México (we had a zone meeting and every single American came dressed in red, white, and blue with no correlation on our part.)

July 5th

Was a Sunday. I love Sundays for many.reasons, more than I can count, but let's just say that we should all find more joy in Sundays, they are the best.


Okey-dokey. I know it wasn't much but I decided it was best to update.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

welp here we are again....

hello fellow family members, friends, so on....

so as many of you know about 2 weeks ago I returned from THE GREATEST year and a half of my life. (sniff, sniff)
But although I am sad, there is great joy to be found knowing that God has a plan for each one of us. ALL OF US. And when one chapter ends (no matter how beautiful the chapter was) there is another one, even better waiting on the next page.

Things to know about me now:

I am not the same Katy I was 18 months ago, I think (at least I hope) I am a better Katy and I know that I can continue improving, YAY!
I like Latin Music now (it happens when you live in Mexico for a while) but I will not force anyone to listen to it with me.
I occasionally speak spanish words in my sentences.
I truly find great JOY in the simple miracles I see daily.
I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ I know it, I try daily to live it, I truly DO love it.

okay other thing:
This last week I got to go to the Payson Temple Open House. GOR.GE.OUS.
It was stunning. I truly believe that it is only the best for the Lord, and I believe that if He has told us that we ourselves are "temples" we should only give "the best" shouldn't we? Just a thought. Also an invitation if there is still time to go. GO. And if you can't make it to the open house and you can go when it is dedicated DO IT. I love being surrounded with His house in this state. What a great blessing.

So I guess that is my first blog post for now, not much (I will need to be more creative in days to come) but it's a start.

Missionary Pictures, the 19 year old, and General Conference, OH MY!

So the other week my lovely friend Sydney came and visited me and took some pictures of me at the Draper Utah Temple. And not that I usually like to post pictures of myself on here but she did such a good job that I decided that I would post some of them on here after a few other things:

First:
I'm 19 now!!! Officially old enough to serve my Mission now. We pretty much celebrated my birthday on the 4th so activities wouldn't collide with Conference. It was a an awesome day spent with my family and with a victory from my BYU Cougars over the Aggies that was an extra present I very much enjoyed(; Saturday was my actually birthday and although I am now 19 it didn't really feel that different than 18 at first... I guess that "whole year older and WISER" thing didn't really happen when I woke up that morning.  Luckily, it was the start of General Conference, which helped with becoming "wiser."
Also, between sessions my family surprised me with a special gift, a two hour present named Waldo, an energetic puppy from Rent a Puppy, he was so much fun.

Second:
As mentioned before General Conference was two weeks ago (one my birthday!!!) I love General Conference. It is such a blessing to me that we have the opportunity each 6 months to gather together as a whole church and to hear the word of God through the voice of His servants.
Also I just love how much the General Authorities love their spouses. The way they talk with such adoration about them makes me so happy.
I summery I just love Conference, it brings me so much joy and extra peace and strength that I need in this insane world. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church on the earth and I am so grateful to be blessed to have had it in my life forever. I love this gospel!

Yup!

And now, some pictures! All credit goes to Sydney Stout check out her page!

lastly, some people have asked me to post pictures of all my Mission outfits... I don't know if I will because I already posted where I found stuff but we'll see!

Until next time! Adios!

she's going on a Mission

Sarah got her call!!!
bah!
Here's the video(:

four things that make me smile

1) this song:

mmm, yeah. pretty much I love it a lot, and you know I'm a teenage girl so my mind wanders.. anyway love it!

2) My crazy family. I just adore them in every way possible.



3) When people tell me that my smile brightens the room.



4) People who smile at me--leading to me smiling, which leads to number three.

"thank you" for moms

moms are such a blessing to me in my life. every mom.
so I just wanted to say "thank you"

I really am so grateful for great moms.

for my friends moms.

for moms in my ward.
for moms in my extended family (aunts and cousins)

for grand moms (or grandmas)

even for moms I don't know

but mostly for MY mom.

she is always there for me and I will never be able to repay her for all the times she has let me cuddle in her bed so we can chat, or understands when I just need to come home from an overwhelming day, or has just been right by my side when I need some support. 

How thankful I am that the Lord blessed me with my mom.

I have 6 best friends.
I have lived with them all most of my life.
Today I will talk about one.
She's always been there for me and I love her so very much.
Her name is Sarah. Sarah Armknecht.
You wanna know why?
Story: I leave motivational sticky-notes all around my house to remind me to do things, I came home around my birthday and found these posted on my mirror:

(see the one on the cupboard? that one is mine)

She is beautiful and I am so grateful for her. 

best bud

my little brother is my best bud.
I love my whole family but with only one brother he is my only bud.
And he makes me laugh the most

Example from this morning:

"I'm part girl"
no you are all boy
"Then why am I not YY"
Because you get a X chromosome from mommy and a Y from daddy.
"Then why don't you get a Y?" (pause for a second) "Oh! Because you get your other X from daddy!"

-It's a great moment when your brother learns more about genetics-

♫ I am 17 going on 18♫

and I won't be home to celebrate it.
It's not like I won't have a fun time with all those going to Shakespeare Festival, but sometimes you just want to spend the day with those you love most.

but it will be good.
I will update when I get back with all my many adventures and how it feels to be 18.

my life is exceptional...

Who are my parents for giving me such amazing of a life?
We've had no family problems, no major losses, what is this?

And hey, what about me?
I've never broken a bone, never once have I had some horrible phase in my life of discovering who I am, and I haven't had any near death experiences!

How on Earth am I supposed to get into any colleges with my life?!?


(Note: I am truly grateful for my life and everything I have been blessed with and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But if any of you remember anything from my youth (♪ or childhood ♪) that would be helpful in this situation please remind me :] )

walked,and walked,and walked, and walked.....

In the spirit of "Pioneer Day"

and all that Trekking everyone's been up to:

(thanks Kyra for being so creative!)

and on a more spiritual note:

I'm grateful for the pioneers back then who sacrificed to make it to Utah.

I'm also grateful for the pioneers now who sacrifice as well to know the truth.

Happy 24th of July!

a few of my favorite things

okay maybe not "a few"...

more like quite a bit.

this week  i have been overly blessed with many 

wonderful things that i love more than 

"brown paper packages tied up with strings."

These are some of MY favorite things:

(sing to tune of "My Favorite Things")

swimming and jump-rope while blasting some music,

 pretzels and snow-cones, and treats made of Reeses',

 Summer-nary and feeling The Spirit,

Morning Temple trips with some great friends,

sometimes I wish summer never would end!                                           

 

(ba ba, ba ba)

cute lil' cousins  to play day and night with,

emails from schools I might apply to,

play practice, dreaming, the smell of rain,

these are a few of my favorite things!

(probably needs a few more verses.. 

and a chorus... it's a work in progress)

also not included in my wonderful song is that I got to watch "Star Dust"

umm love that movie? oooh most definitely.

and mi familia? yeah we're crazy... really.
but they bring me the most happiness out
of everyone I know .

 anyway: this week as been amazing so far.

 

mother's day

As you all well know today is mother's day.

So first I'd like to brag about how wonderful my mother is, 

then I will share how we do mother's day at the Armknecht house.

My mom is amazing.

She is truly an example to me in everything she does.

She is loved by everyone she meets and cares for all of them.

She loves me, even though I am far from perfect.

I can tell her anything and go to her for any advice.

I don't know what I would do without her in my life.

She is my best friend(:

I love you mommy!

 

Now this Sunday isn't just Mother's Day at our house.

It's my Dad's Birthday too!

So, in order to celebrate both of them we do Mother's day in the morning and the Birthday after Church.

But, we made breakfast for both of them this morning.

Last night Sarah and I planned it all out:

We'd wake up around 7 to get it started, she'd make the main meal I'd make the Orange Julius.

Let's just say things don't always work out the way you think they will.

I started working on the drinks but the blender wasn't working that well so I  took the lid off to just mix with just a spoon, I was getting really frustrated so I pushed to container more onto the base part.

Let's just say I made a "happy explosion" (says Evan)

it looked like this...

...just orange and not so pretty.

After we got that cleaned up we made a second batch. That one worked.

We had breakfast then we got to call our Missionary.

It was so great to hear Megan's voice her being gone so long is a very hard thing, but knowing she's serving our brother's and sister's throughout the world is a huge comfort.

Come back from Church and eat the SmartCookie's I bought for my mom... and since she shares, for the rest of us too. mmmmm

Now onto my Dad's Birthday:

First we do presents with just our family.

Usually, these presents include stuff that the whole family will enjoy like:

 Bocce Ball, Board Games, or Croquet

You know just good, family fun games.

And then we go onto the dinner

(don't worry the kids weren't in-charge of this meal)

I take full credit of that salad though. 

Yes, it was delicious.

Then it's time to invite our extended relatives over for cake and ice cream!

(usually extended includes only our backdoor neighbors and our basement neighbors)

I have the best parents in the world and I'm glad  I get to celebrate both of them today.

They are remarkable.

I am so blessed

For those of you only celebrating Mother's Day:

Let your mom's know how much you love them!

and if any of you are lacking the coupons this year here are some just for you(:

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

road trip. Armknecht style.

This past week some of my family and I went on a road trip to Lawrence, Kansas.

(now hurry and throw in your "I don't think you're in Kansas anymore" jokes)

Here's an account of my many adventures:

On the Road/ Parker, Colorado:

First off if you ever road with my family you will learn we listen to two kinds of music, no not Country and Western. Broadway/Disney and Oldies.

Namely:

 

Also sometimes my cousin and I go on walks and we stalk...

Animals.

Now I'm going to teach you a few tricks of the trade for hunting animals:

While hunting a bunny you must be extremely quite, move in a zig-zag motion (if you don't the bunny will notice you I promise,) once you are within 5 feet of the bunny dive for it (I didn't do that but I'm sure if I had I would've caught it)

Next Coyotes: I didn't actually see one... but the path we were taking said it was coyote area so I was on guard just in case I had to take one down.)

Last of all deer; they're a tuff'un. Once you spot the deer crossing the street you must be completely silent. Walk slowly to the yard of which it's staying, always on your toes. If the deer puts up a front leg it probably means it's not in a good mood. However, if you begin singing songs you learned from Disney movies it most likely will let you be.

Also on walks it is important you have the proper protection from cars that keep on going in circles around you so use a spare key and a gummy worm.

On the Road to Lawrence:

With the sun rising over the horizon how could this not be one of the greatest trips?

So now it's time for you to know what I learn from movies we watch on or rides:

Such as:

love this movie

I love young men who can dress well.. a lot

(sorry for the poor quality it's hard to get good pictures of people dancing)

mmm if they can pull off suspenders and can sing they might hold part of my heart.

Lawrence/Kansas City

Culver's, daily walks with Janae, and card games. What could be better? 

I would say nothing but that'd be a lie.

Going to the Kansas City Missouri Temple was the highlight of my trip.

isn't it beautiful?

so happy

Basically I love temples.

Heading Home: 

Got up at 3:30 Utah time to drive 17 hours to my house.

Even with getting up that early I enjoy drives.

the sun rising behind us.

 But, even with the joys of trips there really is no place like home.